Art makes its presence felt in reality in a multitude of ways. You could certainly say that there is art in everything around you—surely, your grade school art teacher told you that. While this may be the case, there are just things around us that make us just stop, stare, and revel at how they so blatantly defy convention. This is exactly what this custom motorcycle is, designed by Free Spirit Motorcycles.
Cubism, described as a revolutionary approach to depicting reality, is an art form founded by none other than Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early twentieth century. Characterized by fragmented images devoid of curves, Cubism gives a surreal, almost abstract image of the world around us. The gamers among you would be familiar with Minecraft, which takes the notion of cubism to a whole new level. That said, this custom Suzuki GN250 could either be a bike perfect for the world of Minecraft, or better still, showcased in a museum dedicated to Cubism, as the radical art form served as an inspiration for the build.
Free Spirit Motorcycles is a small custom builder from Slovakia. The company is known in the custom scene for its urban bikes that combine elements of both past and present. Its latest creation, Cubus, started life as a Suzuki GN250, and looks anything other than the soft, laid-back machine the GN250 ever was. Devoid of any curves on the bodywork, Cubus gives off a surreal aesthetic, making you question whether or not it actually exists in the metal. Yes, some of the images below are indeed renders, however, Cubus is, in fact real. Slavo Danko, the man behind Free Spirit Motorcycles, posted a video on Instagram showing the assembly process.
The design was first meticulously rendered digitally, before becoming a reality. In order to come up with the crazy geometric shapes, 3D milling was used to produce a consistent finish. The bike is put together like a puzzle, with parts fitting perfectly with one another to give off an extremely satisfying aesthetic that seems to change depending on the angle from which you're looking. In fact, Slavo Danko takes pride that the actual bike is nearly identical to the 3D rendering, save, of course, for the visible grain and slight blemishes on the aluminum bodywork—elements that give Cubus even more character and sophistication.
The end result is a scrambler-esque build that departs greatly from the standard, almost cruiser-like form of the GN250. Danko explains that his motorcycling background goes bak to the 1980s when he was into motocross. He recounts his earlier customization exploits building fiberglass tanks, custom saddles, and other bits and pieces for his motorcycles. 30 years later, Danko's passion for customization was rekindled, and he opened his own workshop from scratch, building custom machines for like-minded individuals.
